Chapter 33. A Challenge
Rhys and Ev sparred once more. This time, Rhys occasionally had to take breaks to absorb and burn impurities, but the more they fought and the more Ev pushed him, the faster he was able to absorb the impurities. He grew used to the pain, and slowly, it became less crippling to him. Eventually, he was able to burn the impurities as he fought Ev, though the pain and the distraction of handling the impurities did impair his fighting until the impurities were fully processed. Compared to fighting while burning the lower-level impurities, he was certainly worse at fighting under these ones. The lower-level ones were a straight buff to his power, while these came with caveats.
On the other hand, these enhanced his body to a higher extent, expanded his core more, and provided him with more power, not to mention allowed him to store that power in both his body and core—if temporarily, in the case of his body. That one was only because they invaded his body so thoroughly, that he was almost always still in the process of expelling the mana or processing it when he was with it enough to fight Ev. These impurities also held more power than ordinary ones, which was in turn further boosted by Less is More, so overall, they were stronger; it was just that he couldn’t quite handle them yet.
As for Less is More, he wasn’t sure if it activated because he wasn’t drinking the whole potion, or because he was drinking a potion. Was it a potion-specific skill, or did it only work when he left most of the expendable behind? With his previous techniques, he’d absorbed impurities from smoke, from burning it. By the very nature of burning, he had to burn the whole thing, whether it was a pile of trash or a clump of potion impurities. True, in the case of the potion impurities, the clumps could be considered portions of a whole, but on the other hand, he was still using handfuls of the stuff. If it was activated by a ‘small portion,’ then maybe the clumps of impurities he used weren’t small enough to trigger ‘less.’
Naturally, breathing smoke also wasn’t a potion. So between his two techniques of obtaining impurities, one of which triggered Less is More, and one of which didn’t, he couldn’t say securely what quality it was that activated Less is More.
Rhys raised his hands. Sweat poured down his face and soaked into his robes. His hair dripped with it, and his back was as wet as if he’d jumped into a pool. “Break, I need a break.”
“Hmph. A real opponent won’t give you any breaks,” Ev opined, raising her fists.
“I know, but please?” Rhys said, still backing away.
She narrowed her eyes, but sighed in the end. “Fine. Get some water and drink that nasty potion of yours, so we can keep going.”
Rhys saluted. He jogged over to the stream that ran through the crevasse and threw himself into it. Water splashed, then coursed over him, cool and comfortable. He let himself sink to the bottom of the shallow water and watched the sky through the clear stream. Nowadays, he could hold his breath for a long time, though not indefinitely, as he could go without food and water. Ev had taught him a turtle-breathing technique to extend his time underwater, but he was still at the lowest levels of it. He waited until his body cooled to the point he wanted to do more than just lie in the shade, then sat up. Water splashed all around him, soaking into his long ponytail. He touched it, lost in thought for a second. Back in his world, long hair was strange on men. Here, it was the norm, so much so that Bast stuck out in his mind for preferring a short cut. I wonder if I should get it trimmed? It was starting to get excessive, long enough to tickle his waist when he let it down. He hadn’t seen any hairdressers here, but there was no shortage of blades.
Ev crouched on the edge of the stream and splashed water in her face. Looking up, she laughed at him. “Look at you, sitting in the water and playing with your hair. What are you, a water sprite, luring all the girls into the depths?”
Rhys raised his brows at her. “I don’t know, am I?”
“Maybe in five years,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes at him.